Oblast resort— Aqaba

Preface

It’s an isolated chip off the old Russian bloc that’s surrounded by wealthier EU nations. Its future is anyone’s guess – military outpost or beach resort? But with a dynamic leader and wise investment, Kaliningrad could make its remoteness work.

Inside Kaliningrad’s Museum of History & Arts, deputy director Anatoly Valnev leads the way into his musty office, and lays out a series of maps of the city from the 1930s, back when Kaliningrad was called Königsberg and had a Südbahnhof and Adolf Hitler Strasse. The museum used to be the Town Hall and Hitler himself addressed the citizens of Königsberg from the balcony of Valuyev’s office.

Reminders of the German past are everywhere in Kaliningrad, which, as Königsberg, was a Prussian stronghold and birthplace of the philosopher Immanuel Kant. It…

26

September 2009

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